Behind Florida’s Rigged Maps: A Fight for Fair Representation | Jasmine Burney-Clark & Susan Demas

Florida is the next front for Trump’s and DeSantis’s war to consolidate power through redistricting. Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of Equal Ground, tells Susan J. Demas the Florida Supreme Court “acknowledged that it reduced Black voting power” but upheld DeSantis’ maps anyway. With only two Black opportunity districts left, and talk of redoing the census before 2030, Burney-Clark is blunt: “Changing the rules mid-game is not about fairness. It is about control.”

What looks like a technical fight over maps is really a struggle over whether communities get leaders who reflect their needs or politicians free to ignore them. Trump has already pushed states like Texas to redraw mid-decade, while Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened counter-moves in California. “Redistricting decides who holds power,” Burney-Clark warns, noting that safe Republican seats let lawmakers cater only to partisan primaries and pass wildly unpopular measures like stripping health care or slashing taxes for the wealthy.

Equal Ground’s work is about showing people how these power plays touch their lives. “We want our elected officials to honor the constitutional requirements of a census every 10 years. We want them to count every single person … and we want them to reject any plan to redo the census or redraw those maps,” Burney-Clark explains. From organizing testimonies to confronting legislators in grocery stores and town halls, she argues that making noise in public spaces is critical to resisting authoritarian creep.

For Burney-Clark, the fight is both structural and personal. Her own district in Orlando has been at the center of legal battles for most of her life, a reminder of how long Black political power has been contested. That history, she says, is why organizing now is non-negotiable. Watch now to hear how Florida became the blueprint for authoritarian rule — and how grassroots leaders are refusing to let it stand.

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